Keyword Rankings Can’t Be Promised

If you’re in the market to hire an SEO provider and you’re looking for someone that’s going to tell you the keyword rankings that they’ll be able to achieve for you, you’re not looking for the right kind of SEO provider. SEO providers that adhere to the search engine guidelines and practice white hat SEO will never make such promises. Why? Because it’s just not possible to do so. Here’s what Marios Asexandrou of STEAK’s Search Marketing recently had to say about the topic in an interview:

I don’t promise keyword rankings and certainly not when the list is short. I’d much rather look at traffic to the site and conversions from that traffic. I’ve seen plenty of situations where traffic has increased and rankings haven’t changed. I’ve also seen traffic go down with no change in rankings. If all I looked at were rankings, I’d be ignoring reality.

So if a site owner is focused purely on a few keyword rankings, I’ll make the case for looking at traffic and conversions instead. If I’m not convincing enough then it’s not a good fit. Sometimes you just need to walk away.

Understand that? A good, reputable white hat SEO provider will WALK AWAY from you if keyword rankings are your main focus. That’s right, SEO providers don’t need to deal with the headaches that are caused by clients that just don’t understand the process and are constantly whining about what they see on a keyword ranking report.

As Asexandrou mentioned, what SEO clients and SEO providers really need to focus on is traffic to the site and conversions from that traffic. Unlike rankings, this is a more tangible way to measure the success of an SEO campaign. After all, seeing where a keyword ranks isn’t as valuable as seeing that your site is actually generating visitors from the search engines and from inbound links that were established from SEO content efforts.

Still not convinced? Well hopefully this can sway you- keyword rankings aren’t an accurate way to measure SEO success because they aren’t concrete. Keyword rankings depend on many different factors. Two people searching for the same exact thing might see two different results on the SERP (search engine results page). What someone sees when they search depends on personalized factors such as their search history, location, and social connections. Not all of your target audience members are going to see the same thing.

Rankings also fluctuate. You might have a page of content that’s #5 for a keyword one day and then see that it’s #8 the next week. This doesn’t mean that you did anything “wrong” per say. It’s just because the search engines are always tweaking the algorithms and you have no control over what’s being done behind the scenes or what your competition is doing. You might find that you’re back up to #5 again the following week. It’s nothing to freak out about. It’s just the way the search engines operate. If you aren’t satisfied with this, maybe a white hat SEO campaign isn’t the best fit for your marketing campaign.

Read What Full Service SEO Clients Say About SEO Firm Brick Marketing

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"went above and beyond to help us with any SEO issues"

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– Mory Creighton, CEO, Pinpoint Laser Systems

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“I had been impressed for a long time with the content that Brick Marketing was sharing in their informative blog posts and articles. I chatted with Nick Stamoulis a couple times and decided that he was the expert I wanted to work with. I have worked with Brick Marketing for about six months and they have helped us resolve several SEO related issues pertaining to our website. Our account rep is always just an email away with answers to any questions I have and suggestions for how we can improve what we’re doing. Brick Marketing is “solid” when it comes to support for SEO marketing advice. I definitely recommend them if you want to feel more secure about how your website is performing in searches and have the confidence that everything being done to improve your rank is white hat and legit.”

– Paul Rarick, Debbiegrattan.com

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“I have had the good fortune to work with SEO expert Nick Stamoulis and his team at Brick Marketing and it was clear form the get go that Nick had superior knowledge of marketing on the internet. The SEO campaign and technical writing that Brick Marketing provides has been impressive, where in the past we struggled to find the high levels of competence in these two skill sets. Were only just beginning with Brick Marketing and look forward to growing with their expert guidance. Thank you Nick Stamoulis and the Brick Marketing team!”

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– Jeff Nicholson, President Freely Creative, Inc. / Websticker.com

"highly recommend Brick Marketing to all of my clients"

“After working with many other SEO firms and not being satisfied I finally was introduced to the Brick Marketing President and Founder, Nick Stamoulis. Nick Stamoulis has educated me about SEO and has provided me with a well rounded SEO package, not only does he offer top quality services he also educates his clients and spends the time to explain everything and their SEO pricing is competitive. I will highly recommend Brick Marketing to all of my clients. Brick Marketing is an A+ for SEO services.”

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“I have formed an invaluable marketing partnership with Brick Marketing. Nick Stamoulis and the rest of the Brick Marketing team are professional, timely, thorough and take time to, not only succeed at the tasks, but also educate myself and my team on the strategies in the process. Since my first encounter working with Brick, I’ve changed organizations and have taken them along with me…they are that good! In my experience in working with many outside agencies who over-promise and under-communicate, I can truly state that Brick Marketing is levels above all others and vested in our relationship. They are not just an SEO consultant, but an integral part of my team. I highly recommend Brick Marketing for any company looking to significantly increase search engine competitiveness and internet presence.​”

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"Our keyword rankings have improved and traffic has increased"

“The Brick Marketing team, was critical to ensuring that our new Web site is optimized to drive maximum traffic. Our keyword rankings have improved and traffic has increased thanks to her assistance and advice. In addition, they executed a strategic link building program that helped further increase Web traffic.”

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